The Doctor and the Death Eater
by DocFanFive-TimeTraveler
Summary: The Doctor and Taal are trapped slap bang in the middle of Book Four of harry Potter. The Doctor is mistaken for Barty Crouch Junior, Harry accuses him of murdering his 'father,' and, oh yeah, Captain Jack shows up eventually. Rated T for safety.
1. Arrival

The Doctor and the Death Eater. Chapter 1, Arrival

Note: Taal, the Doctor's companion, is a CatPerson from New Earth. He picked her up sometime between "Voyage of the Damned" and "Partners in Crime," so she comes in between Martha and Donna as a companion.

"Come along, Taal." Called the Doctor, as he stepped out of the TARDIS. "Let's see where we are this time."

Taal followed shortly, her collar on her long blue coat turned up to hide her catlike face. "You only say that when we end up somewhere that we're not supposed to be." She said, reaching into her jacket to pullout her replicator. At the very least, a GPS might do her some good.

"No, no, no, no, no, don't do that, Taal." Said the Doctor, placing a hand over hers. She grumbled a bit, but retracted the wand-like instrument and replaced it in its pocket. "I have a bad feeling about where we are, and if I'm right- which I really hope I'm not, that little device could get us in a lot of trouble. Frankly, your appearance could get us in a lot of trouble, which is why I've been trying to stay away from twenty-first century Earth."

"Trying to stay away?" laughed Taal. "We were here just last week!"

"That was Halloween." Said the Doctor, trying to keep from laughing. Taal swatted at him with her claws extended, but missed on purpose.

"Hold on-" said the Doctor, running back to the TARDIS. "I forgot my coat." He ran back inside. Soon Taal heard a cry of dismay.

"What?" said Taal, leaning against the wooden exterior of the box. "Did you lose your coat?"

The Doctor poked his head around the corner. "It's much worse than that, Taal. Come in."

Taal opened the door and stepped in, immediately disorientated. The interior of the TARDIS was pitch black. Even with her cat-like eyesight, Taal could only make out vague impressions of where the central column was, and could only tell where the Doctor was because she could hear him. "Doctor! What's happened?"

There was a crash, like something metal had hit the floor, a curse, and then the familiar sound of the Doctor's footsteps. He crashed into her and nearly knocked her down. "Taal." He said urgently. "Can you see a light? Any light, no matter how faint."

Taal nodded and walked forward, eventually kneeling down above a nearly imperceptible glow. "There." She said, pointing to the floor beneath her. "I can't get to it, though, the grill's in the way."

The Doctor leaned over and pointed the sonic at the floor. A section of floor opened, and Taal reached in. She came away with a small green crystal, glowing faintly in the gloom.

"Brilliant!" exclaimed the Doctor, snatching it from her. The moment he touched it, the crystal glowed a little brighter. "Now, all we need to do is let it re-fuel, and we can go. But in the meantime…" he trailed off, and Taal finished his sentence.

"We explore!" the two raced out of the room, leaving the silent, dark TARDIS alone behind them.

The two began tromping though the forest that the TARDIS had landed in. Despite the Doctor's warning to Taal not to use the replicator, she pulled it out anyway and soon they each had a torch in hand and GPS in the other. Taal was lost even with the GPS, but the Doctor seemed to know where they were going. Muttering things like, 'no, it can't be!' the Doctor got on Taal's nerves so much that she raced ahead. She heard voices, and saw what looked like a flash of green in the darkness. A man ran through the shadows. She only caught a glimpse of his face, but he looked like the Doctor.

"Doctor?" she called. When he didn't answer, she ran after him, tripping over something on the ground. She looked down and then screamed. "DOCTOR! DOCTOR, COME HERE! NOW!"

The Doctor soon came pounding up behind her, his footsteps breaking every branch in the forest. "For heaven's sake, Taal, what is it?"

Taal pointed down at the body at her feet. "There was a flash of green. Someone who looked exactly like you was standing over the body. He ran off, and I saw what it was. I called after you, and you came in from the opposite direction! What's going on, Doctor? The green light… a man who looks like you… It all seems a bit, well… magical."

The Doctor suddenly stood up, and looked at her, his face full of terror. "Magic." He breathed. "Oh, no. No, no! NONONONONONO!"

"What, Doctor?" cried Taal.

"Magic. Green light. A man who looks like me but isn't- I always thought that he looked familiar in the movie, but I never paid much attention." A haunted look came over the Doctor's face. "This man is Bartemius Crouch. The man who killed him is Barty Crouch junior. We're in an alternate universe, slap bang in the middle of book four of Harry Potter."

"Oh my god." Said Taal, her eyes widening, the pupils dilating in fear. "Voldemort's coming back to life, Moody's a death eater, and that Death Eater… he looks like you!"

"We need to run." Said the Doctor, grabbing Taal's hand.

"Run? Run WHERE?" she cried, unable to tear her eyes from the dead man's face. "The TARDIS is derelict, and we're stuck here!"

"We're in a FOREST!" responded the Doctor. "We can hide in the trees!"

Taal's ear twitched. "we don't have time." She turned to the Doctor. "I'm sorry. I'm really-"

"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!" cried a voice. It was a young man's voice, maybe fourteen years old. Taal gave the Doctor one last look, before the spell slammed into her with its full force. She froze, and tipped over backwards, almost in slow motion. Her head made a dull thump as it hit the ground, and her eyes closed as she was knocked out.

The young man who had cast the spell stepped out from in between the trees. Keeping his wand trained on the Doctor, his face paled. "The man from my dreams."

"What?" said the Doctor. He hadn't read the books in a long time, and didn't remember any dreams.

"You're a death eater- you work for Voldemort!" Harry said, nearly shouting now.

"What?"

"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!" cried Harry again.

The Doctor had just enough time to shout one last "WHAT?" before the spell hit him. He pitched back, and his head hit the ground as hard as Taal had hit hers. Then the world went dark.


	2. In the Dungeons

Chapter 2 In the Dungeons

The Doctor woke up some time later, his body no longer bound by the curse. He tried to stand up, but he was tied down to the chair he was sitting in by some very strong rope. He could get though it if he could get to his sonic, but-

"Don't bother." Said Taal. The Doctor tried to see where she was, but couldn't see her. "I'm tied up in the chair right behind you. I woke up first, about two hours ago. They took my replicator, torch, even that bag of jelly babies you gave me. And they took your screwdriver."

The Doctor groaned, and automatically reached up to hold his head. But his hands were tied to the armrests. "What's going on?" he cried. "We only just got here, why are we tied up already?"

"They think that you're Barty Crouch Jr., remember? We're lucky that they decided to use Veritaserum on us, not Legillimency, though." Sighed Taal. "At least then they won't find out everything."

"And you're lucky that you're tied up, and they haven't tried to de-charm you or something." Replied the Doctor, slightly irritated by Taal's suggestion that he had forgotten what was going on. "I may know what a cat person is, but they wouldn't."

"Shut up." Said Taal. "For all we know, they could be listening to us right now. No need to give them more information than we want them to know." She sighed. "I suppose that we're muggles here."

The Doctor nodded, then remembered that Taal couldn't see him. "Yes. Though not JUST muggles. We're alien muggles!"

"Why do I get the feeling that that would have been a perfect time for a high-five?" said Taal, trying to lighten the mood in what she now realized was what looked like a dungeon.

Laughing, the Doctor responded, "Mental high-five!"

Taal laughed too. "Indeed!"

Their cheery mood vanished when the door opened. The Doctor squirmed in his seat so he could see who had come in, but he was facing the wall across from the door. "Taal, who's here?" Taal didn't answer, only gulped. "Taal, who is it?"

Taal took in a shaky breath. "Just four, Doctor. Snape, McGonagall, Dumbledore." She paused and took in another breath. "and… Harry Potter."

"All of them?" exclaimed the Doctor, his tone sounding like one of an excited schoolboy. "That's brilliant! I mean, completely wrong, not only should we not be here, but we shouldn't be here and they think that we killed Barty Crouch, and I helped kill the Longbottoms, but still… BRILLIANT!"

"Doctor, shut up!" exclaimed Taal. "They're angry enough! There's no need to antagonize your captors even more than they already are!"

"Right." Said the Doctor. "I'd mime zipping my lips right about now, but-"

"DOCTOR!"

"Alright, alright." Said the Doctor, "shutting up now."

Snape advanced on Taal. She squirmed in her bonds under his icy gaze. He circled around, giving the Doctor the same treatment, but the Doctor coolly held his gaze. Snape raised an eyebrow at him, then returned to looking at Taal. He produced a small bottle of a clear liquid in a crystal phial, and regarded it thoughtfully.

"Who should we start with," he murmured. "The traitor," he said, once again circling to stare at the Doctor, "Or the freak." He said, once again staring at Taal.

Taal bared her teeth at him at the insult, and hissed at him. "At least I know how to use a shower." She hissed. "Or are you allergic to soap?"

"Taal?" said the Doctor.

"Yes?"

"What did you just say about not antagonizing your captors?"

There was a pause. Taal tensed, her teeth still bared. "He called me a freak, Doctor."

"Taal…"

"Alright, alright." She said, slumping in her seat. "The FREAK is shutting up now."

Snape leered unpleasantly at Taal. "I'll start with you, then. The loud one." He slowly uncorked the bottle. "Do you know what Veritaserum does, cat?"

"Of COURSE I do." Responded Taal. "I may be a cat, but I'm not dumb."

Snape continued as if Taal hadn't spoken. "It forces the user to spill tell the truth. All of her secrets out on display, as long as one asks the right questions. Let's see what secrets you hold."

He brought the bottle to her mouth and was just about to pour some in when the Doctor shouted, "No! It's me you want, me! Don't harm Taal, she has nothing to do with all of this!"

Snape re-corked the bottle and swept over to the Doctor. "So… the mighty Barty Crouch. The Dark Lord's greatest servant…. Has a soft spot for a cat."

"Leave her alone." Hissed the Doctor. "you've got this all wrong, but there's no need to take anything out on Taal. She hasn't done anything to you, she knows nothing!"

"Oi!" shouted Taal, her pride overcoming her survival instincts for a moment. "I know plenty."

"So she admits it!" said Snape. He swept over to Dumbledore. "With your permission, sir, I will start with the woman, she obviously knows something. A companion of a Death Eater might know more than the Death Eater himself. And may be easier to… encourage to spill her secrets."

Dumbledore nodded. Snape swept over to Taal, and forced her mouth open. Half the contents of the phial went into her mouth, and she slumped in her seat. "Start at the beginning." Said Snape. "Tell me everything that you know."

To her everlasting credit, Taal fought it. The first sentence out of her mouth was, "Well, I know that you can't lick your elbow with your tongue." The interview pretty much went downhill from there.


	3. Interrogation

Chapter 3 Interrogation

"Well," said Taal, "I know that you can't lick your elbow with your tongue." She hissed slightly under her breath, but it really wasn't that hard for her to resist the potion. Her biology was even more different from humans than the Doctor was. She was frankly surprised that it had worked at all on her. But she needed to keep up the appearance that she was actually resisting it, as supposed to simply ignoring its little nagging urge, so that she could lie to them.

"Impertinence!" cried Snape, and slapped her across her face hard enough that her head whipped around and she saw stars for a moment. "Who are you?"

That was simple enough. She could give them plenty of information on that without having to be creative. "My name is Lynsing Maria Taal, ex-Major in fighter squadron seven-one-nine."

"Why do you appear as a cat?" said Snape, peering into her eyes. "Did you take a mistaken polyjuice potion? Or are you a muggle under the same problem?"

"I am not a wizard. I am not a muggle in the strictest sense of the word. I have never taken a polyjuice potion in my life." Taal tried to keep her answers as simple as possible. She didn't want to get them angry, and she didn't want to make anything up just yet. She was lucky that she had thought to leave out the mention of New Earth in her naming of herself. She didn't need them knowing that she was not from this Earth. Not yet, anyway.

"Then why do you look like that?" asked Snape, still staring directly into her eyes, his face mere inches away from hers. She fought to keep her expression impassive as she answered.

"I was born this way." She said.

"Alright." Said Snape, obviously figuring that he wasn't going to get anything else out of her about herself. "What do you know about Barty Crouch Junior?"

Taal thought back to reading the fourth Harry Potter book, and tried to remember all that she could. She couldn't say too much, or she could ruin the timeline of how this was supposed to go. "Barty Crouch Junior is the son of Barty Crouch, the man you have accused my companion-" she heard the Doctor snort slightly- technically she was his companion, but she was the one telling the story here. "- of murdering. He joined the Death Eaters at a relatively young age, and, along with the… Lestranges, I believe, took part in the torturing and murder of the Longbottoms- Neville Longbottom's parents."

She paused here, wondering how much more she could say without spoilers. "He was put into Azkaban by his own father. I can't remember who actually tipped them off, but I seem to remember Karkaroff saying something about it at his trial. But that might be wrong, there are several versions of the story out there… it's said that it destroyed Barty to put his son in prison, and his wife died soon after."

She refocused her eyes, now that her mind wasn't focused inwards. "I'm afraid that that's all I know, sir." It galled her to call Snape 'sir.' She had read the last book, knew that he was a good guy, but frankly, having his greasy hair swinging within inches of her face didn't improve her opinion of him.

"Where is Barty Crouch Jr. now?" asked Snape, the expression on his face betraying how much he wanted her to trip up and reveal some crucial information.

"He's dead, isn't he? He died in Azkaban." Said Taal, parroting the last of what she considered the 'safe' information from the book.

"Then you deny that this man is Barty Crouch Junior?" said Snape. He knew that she could still answer 'yes,' if the Doctor had not gone by Barty, but he guessed that he would have.

"Yes, of course I deny it. I've seen his arm loads of times. He hasn't got a Dark Mark tattoo… brand… whatever you call them." She looked pointedly at Snape's arm, hoping to get him to back off a little. His hand automatically went to his arm, and he swept away to the other side of the room to the Doctor.

"Oh, good." Said the Doctor. "I was beginning to think that you'd forgotten about me, Severus Snape." He smiled slightly. "I'd bare my arm myself, but as you can see," he shrugged, "I'm a bit tied up at the moment."

Snape used his wand to sever enough of the ropes, and re-bind others, so that the Doctor's left arm was bared, but the rest of his body seemed to be bound even tighter. Snape roughly grabbed the sleeve of the Doctor's suit, and, after a pause, yanked it up roughly. The skin beneath was pale and slightly freckly, with several small white scars criss-crossing them- mementos of times when he hadn't been quite fast enough- but was utterly bare of anything else.

"Well, what do you know, Taal." He said, smirking slightly. "I haven't got a Dark Mark. I'm not a Death Eater. If my hands were free, I'd be leaning back with my hands behind my head, happy after another day's work."

Taal snorted too, seemingly snapping out of the influence of the Veritaserum. "You would. You would be doing that in a dungeon with four people that I think that you've forgotten are here. And guess what, Doctor. They're armed. We're tied up. I think that you should shut up."

Snape walked back around, his wand pointed almost leisurely at Taal. One tap would have knocked it out of his grasp, but Taal didn't have anything to tap it with. "I've never seen anyone throw off the effects of my Veritaserum so quickly. Was all that you just told me… lies? Because it is a very bad idea to lie to me." He pointed the wand directly at her, this time keeping the point mere centimeters from her forehead. "Let's find out, shall we?"

The Doctor squirmed in his bonds even more. "Let her go! LET HER GO! You have no right to do this! By section twelve, subsection thirty-seven of the Shadow Proclamation, I ORDER YOU to stop this inhuman treatment and let her go!"

Snape ignored the Doctor, and spoke the final, terrible word. "Legillimens!"


	4. Legillimency

Chapter 4 Legillimency

Snape pressed the wand harder into Taal's furry forehead. "Legillimens!" he cried. Taal's eyes rolled up into the back of her head, and her life flashed before her.

*_Piloting school back on New Earth. Getting yelled at for pulling a maneuver banned in training.*_

_*Her ship crashing, falling. Her certainty that she was going to die. The jolt of the ship landing in the TARDIS. The Doctor's grinning face as he helped her out of the ruined cockpit*_

_*New piloting lessons. The functions of every button and lever of the TARDIS console. The Doctor letting her fly it for the first time. His accusations of leaving a dent in the 1980's*_

_*Running from monsters. Cybermen. Silurians. Krillitains. A very angry hot dog man*_

_*Sitting together in a darkened movie theatre, waiting for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire to begin on its midnight premier*_

"NO!" she shouted, managing to beak the connection before the instant replay of the movie in her head started, stopping it just after the previews ended.

She felt weak and powerless, tired and as hungry as if she hadn't slept or ate for a month. "No… she said weakly. "You can't see that… Spoilers…" the world swam before her eyes, and all went black to her.

"What have you done?" cried the Doctor. "Her biology is very different from yours; you could have killed her if you had gone too far!"

Snape looked back at Dumbledore and McGonagall. Harry had vanished sometime along the conversation, probably having gone back to class, and now all that was left was the Headmaster and the two Heads of House. McGonagall had an expression of deep disapproval on her face. It was obvious that she neither liked nor trusted Snape, and only remained because she didn't want any harm to come to the two travelers, should she leave them alone.

Snape turned back to the Doctor, leaving Taal slumped in her chair. "I was not aware that anything but her appearance was different than us mere mortals." He said greasily, causing the Doctor's face to begin to contort into a sneer of contempt. "Why would I have any reason to doubt that, given how helpful you've been lately?" He crouched down in front of the Doctor, and pointed his wand at him. "Let's see if her story conflicts with yours."

The Doctor squared his mental barriers around his mind, and met Snape's gaze. "Bring it." He said.

"Legillimens!" cried Snape. The Doctor felt Snape's mind bang in against his shields, and prepared for him to try to break in. Instead, it was as if Snape had vanished. The Doctor curiously lowered his barriers, then immediately regretted it. Snape rushed in, seizing the first memory he could get his hands on. The Doctor had just enough time to erect his best barriers around his knowledge of the Harry Potter canon, before he was swept away.

_*Running away from the Time Lords. Finding the first TARDIS that was unlocked, and borrowing it. He had always meant to bring it back, but-*_

_*Susan-Polly-Jo-Sarah Jane-Leela-K9-Nyssa-Peri-Ace-Grace-Rose-*_

"NO!" The Doctor fought as well as he could, but soon he was dragged back under.

_*Rose-Jack-Mickey-Donna-Martha… Martha! Davros-Lumic-Autons-Nestine-Cassandra-Editor-Slitheen-Raxacoricofallapatorius-Sycorax-Werewolf-Daleks-Cybermen-Reapers-the Void-Plasmavore-Carrionites-Ood! Oh YES!*_

_The Doctor mentally grinned. He would feed Snape as many memories as he wanted._

_*Running from giant rats with Sara Jane*_

_*Castrovalva- the Master- Concord Speedbird-*_

_*Saving Rose-Saving Donna-Saving Martha-*_

_*Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy? Running*_

_*Running. So many goodbyes. Running*_

_*Running. Torchwood. Battle of Canary Wharf. Rose gone. Running.*_

_*The last of the Time Lords. Alone in the universe. So very, very, alone*_

_*Running. Running. Running. Running-running-running-running. . Never stopping. Never looking back. Because you can't*_

"NO!" cried the Doctor, finally breaking out of Snape's hold. "You can't see that. That is me. I am NOT Barty Crouch. I don't belong here. Let us GO!" When no one moved to unbind him or the still unconscious Taal, he shouted, "NOW!"

"Well, well." Said Snape, regarding him coolly. "The last of the Time Lords and his alien companion. Who both seem to know so much about us. But how?" He looked at the Doctor, and lifted up his with two fingers so Snape could look at him. The Doctor's face began to contort to an ugly expression of pain and rage.

The Doctor's voice became dangerously quiet. "Let us go. Now."


	5. Jack

Chapter 5 Jack

The Doctor's voice became dangerously quiet. "Let us go. Now."

Snape scoffed. "I may have seen that you have a talent for escaping, but those 'memories' could be clever constructs, your arm faked with a perception charm. You are tied up, _Doctor,"_ he paused, his voice dripping with sarcasm on the last word, "And you have none of your tools. Forgive me, but I have trouble viewing you as a threat."

"You don't need to see me as a threat." The Doctor pleaded. "I mean you no harm. You obviously searched our pockets; you took my coat, my sonic, and Taal's replicator. You can see we were unarmed, and that we mean no harm!"

"The item you call a 'replicator' that was found on your companion has the potential to make weapons. Crude, muggle weapons, yes, but dangerous in the right hands nonetheless. You may not think that you are Barty Crouch Junior, but the physical evidence seems to point irrevocably to your guilt." Snape said. "It seems like you cannot irrevocably prove your innocence!"

While the two men were engaged in their argument, Taal was beginning to regain her strength and consciousness. She opened her eyes, and found Dumbledore looking at her. She raised an eyebrow, and Dumbledore flicked his wand. She immediately felt better, stronger, and less tired. He smiled as her face betrayed her confusion.

He flicked his wand again, and the oddly empty feeling coat that she wore was replaced by the comforting feeling of her possessions and tech. Everything was exactly where she had stored them, and it seemed like there were two new things in it. One was the weight that she recognized as the Doctor's screwdriver. The second was long and this, and barely weighed anything.

"Wand?" she mouthed. "Why a wand?"

Dumbledore didn't answer, just nodded and shrugged. He flicked his wand one last time, and Taal felt the ropes binding her loosen. She wiggled a bit, trying to get them off, but she caught Dumbledore's almost imperceptible shake of his head. "Not yet." He seemed to be saying. "Wait."

Snape finally finished talking with the Doctor, and returned to Taal. "Have you thought about the consequences of lying to me now, cat?"

"I have not lied to you." She said, trying to keep her anger under control. "And I might tell you more _voluntarily_ if you'd stop calling me 'cat.' I have a name, you know."

"Hmmm…" said Snape, lifting her chin up with the tip of his wand, obviously deciding that she wasn't worth touching (or that her teeth were too sharp to risk putting his fingers anywhere near). "Yes, you did say that you have a name. However, at the moment, I do not believe that I shall use it. Cat."

Taal hissed and bared her teeth at him, but recognized a lost cause when she saw it. Taal's ears twitched. She heard a commotion outside, and it would only be a matter of time before the others heard it. Sure enough, Snape's head whipped around and he straightened up. He walked past the other two professors, and opened the door. Standing in the hall, being restrained by two aurors and led by Filch was a man in WWII era clothes, a coat similar to Taal's, and an American accent.

"Look, there's got to be some mistake. I'm no threat, look at me! You're wizards; I'm a… whatchamacallit, a muddle? No… that's not right, a muggle. Haven't read the books in a while." He grinned and laughed slightly nervously. "I'm just looking for the Doctor."

"Jack?" called the Doctor, straining against his bindings. "Jack, what the hell are you-"

"SILENCE!" Snape shouted, returning from conferring with Filch and the aurors. "_Doctor, _you consider this man to be a friend? He apperated onto school grounds using muggle technology, and was found with a highly dangerous gun in his presence! You say that you are not a threat, but this man seems to conflict with that."

"I didn't know he was here!" pleaded the Doctor. "I don't know- speaking of which, Jack, what the hell are you doing here?"

Jack shrugged, which was harder than you'd think when your every move is being constricted by aurors. "I was looking for you. You have my Doctor Detector, unfortunately, at the moment, but I managed to get my Vortex Manipulator working enough to track you to the right year, then use it to jump dimensions. I merged it with some Torchwood technology that we've been working on for dimension hopping, and here I am. I thought that you'd be visiting Rose or something, but I find you here!"

"I thought I broke that thing!" said the Doctor. "I can't have you or your… team… hopping about the universe messing up time and space and god knows what! And as for not having a Doctor Detector anymore, well… you shouldn't have had that thing in the first place!"

"Hold on, hold on." cut in Taal. "Doctor Detector?"

"My hand." Said the Doctor.

"Your HAND?" cried Taal. "But you've GOT both your hands! I saw them!"

"Long story. I'll tell it to you later, since we seem to have plenty of time stuck in here." The Doctor sighed.

"You most certainly do." Snape said, irritated that he would now have to interrogate Jack as well. "We will leave you now, to think of the crimes you have committed." He turned to the aurors holding Jack. "Tie him up. Make sure that they can't help untie each other."

Snape, McGonagall and Dumbledore left the room. Taal could have sworn that she saw Dumbledore wink, but she chalked it up to her imagination. Jack was pushed into a chair and tied up. Taal and the Doctor's chairs were angled a bit, and Jack was shoved in between them. Taal held her breath until they were out of the room, fearing that they would check her bindings, but they simply left. She listened, and found that no one was left to guard the room. She almost laughed, but instead wiggled out of her bindings. The Doctor and Jack were engaged in a heated discussion over something called "Torchwood," and they unknowingly allowed Taal the distraction she needed to wiggle free.

"Jack, how could you just go and join _Torchwood?"_ the Doctor cried.

Her arms were free, now. She reached into hr jacket and drew out her replicator. As much as she hated making weapons, a knife would go a long way, now.

"They're different now!" said Jack, "Most of them were killed or left after Canary Wharf-"

Taal sliced off the ropes binding her body. Now she could start on her legs.

"But I saw you during that whole affair with the Master. You fight and you fight. Guns are your weapons as much as words are mine." Retorted the Doctor, almost sadly.

Her legs were finally free now. She wiggled her toes to get the blood flowing again, and winced as the pins and needles feeling became painful.

"Well." Said Jack. "You go flying off with your little blue box, and sometimes you aren't even there! We have to protect ourselves!"

There was a pause, and Taal imagined the Doctor rolling his eyes. "There are better ways to fight than with guns!"

Taal finally stood up and put her replicator back into her coat. She pulled out the Doctor's screwdriver, a small gun that she figured must belong to this 'Jack,' and the wand that Dumbledore had put in there.

"If you boys are done arguing," she said, almost laughing out loud at their dumbfounded expressions, "Why don't we get out of here?"

She flipped the wand over a couple of times in her hand, then pointed it squarely at the Doctor.

"What are you doing, Taal?" asked the Doctor. "If my hands were free, I'd be raising them in surrender, but if you were going to point a wand at someone, why me? Jack seems to be the correct person to point it at. You've traveled with me for a month now, you've never even-"

"Shut up!" said Taal. "I have enough on my mind without having to worry about your petty feuds between Torchwood and team TARDIS. Now shut up, I'm trying to concentrate!"

"Ooooh!" said Jack. "Where'd you pick up this one?"

"Who are you, exactly?" said Taal, now pointing the wand at him.

"Captain Jack Harkness." Said Jack, as seductively as possible. "And _who_ are _you_?"

"Major Lynsing Taal." Said Taal dismissively. "My friends call me Taal. You can call me Major Taal, as I have no inclinations of ever calling an egomaniac who believes that he is god's gift to woman my friend."

"Ah!" said Jack. "Maybe something more than friends, then?"

Taal gave him a look dripping with contempt. "Don't hold your breath, buddy."

Jack raised his eyebrows, and Taal rolled her eyes. She had had enough experience with people like him, and knew how to ignore them.

"Is there any point to this- admittedly amusing- banter, or you're randomly holding a wand that you can't possibly use?" asked the Doctor.

Taal shrugged and rolled the wand in her fingers. "As for the banter, no. Your… friend-" she gave Jack a pointed look, who smiled almost charmingly, "-seems to enjoy it, and who am I not to indulge him?" The Doctor rolled his eyes, but silently cheered. Taal was probably the first person he had traveled with who had no romantic designs on him or on Jack. "As for the wand… Well, Dumbledore made it appear in my jacket, so I assume that there's some point in it."

She looked at it thoughtfully. "Well, I'm sure we'll find out later. For now, a really nice knife'll do." She pulled out the knife that she had used to cut herself free, and cut off the rest of the ropes binding the Doctor. She threw him his screwdriver, which he tucked into his suit pocket, and looked thoughtfully at Jack.

"To free, or not to free. That is the question…" she looked at him almost coldly, before the Doctor put a hand on her shoulder.

"Let him go, Taal. He's a 51st century kinda guy. By your time, people have calmed down a bit, but during his century…" he trailed off, letting Taal finish the sentence herself.

"Alright, alright. I get it. You're gonna give me the whole 'he can't help it' spiel." She sighed. "I am so going to regret this…" but she cut him free.

"Now," said Jack, looking at Taal. "You have his screwdriver, a wand, and obviously a very large knife. Any chance you've got my sonic blaster?"

Taal raised her eyebrows. "What… this thing?" she pulled a small gun out of her pocket.

"Yes, _that _thing!" said Jack, making a grab for it. Taal pulled it out of his reach before he could get his hands on it.

"I do NOT trust you with a gun." She said, then dug around in her pocket. "Here. Have a banana." Jack reflexively caught it, then shot Taal a dirty look. The Doctor was having a hard time restraining himself from laughing. "What?" she said innocently. "It's a good source of potassium! Didn't anyone ever tell you that?"

Jack sighed, and decided that the subject wasn't worth arguing over. "Are we going to get out of here or not?"

**Hopefully the next few chapters should be coming soon. No promises, though, I'm going on vacation today, and I have no access to a computer. As always, reading and reviewing is always appreciated!**


	6. Invisibility Cloaks? That's Cheating!

**Well, as I said, I'm on a holiday right now. Luckily, where I'm staying has free Wi-Fi at a coffee shop nearby, I have a laptop, and my imagination hasn't deserted me yet. Enjoy! As always, reviews are appreciated, and I will accept suggestions for something that should occur later on. **

**Also, after this chapter, I'll be taking a break from this story to work on another fanfic. I WILL NOT FORGET about this story, the next update just might be a day or two in coming, instead of a chapter per day.**

Chapter 6 Invisibility Cloaks? That's Cheating!

Jack sighed, and decided that the subject wasn't worth arguing over. "Are we going to get out of here or not?"

"Right-o." responded Taal, walking over to the door. "Unlocked. Really, what is with these wizards that they decided that we would have never gotten out of those ropes?" she poked her head out into the corridor. "And they didn't even post a guard! They must have a really low opinion of our abilities!"

The Doctor stepped out next, holding his sonic screwdriver out and scanning the hallway. "No life signs around here. We go…" there was a pause as he swept the sonic back and forth along the hall. It's buzzing increased in pitch towards one end, but he seemed almost confused.

"Having some trouble with the _screwdriver,_ Doctor?" said Jack, stepping out from the room. "And I have to say I agree with you Ta- Major. Last time I was locked up with him, he was in a birdcage guarded by a megalomaniac with a LASER screwdriver, and I was bound hand-and-foot with chains… It wasn't fun, to tell you the least."

Taal regarded him coolly. "Was that supposed to impress me, or is exaggeration your hobby?"

"Stop it, you two!" said the Doctor. "Honestly, you argue like an old married couple!" Taal and Jack immediately shut up after that and regarded him with irritation. He raised his eyebrows and grinned. "As for the _screwdriver_ comment, Jack, it's working fine. I just can't remember whether we got to the high pitched or low pitched end."

"Oh, so it's not the _screwdriver_ that's crap, then!" Jack was laughing now, but the Doctor was too.

"Says the man holding a _banana!_" he managed to force out between guffaws. He offered his hand for a high-five to Taal, who immediately slapped it. "I can't believe that you remembered that story!"

Taal looked somewhat taken aback. "What story?" she said, completely astonished. "Bananas are good, and I had one in my pocket."

The Doctor opened his mouth to explain, but Jack playfully shoved him. "You are NEVER telling her that story!" he said.

The Doctor shrugged, but when Jack's back was turned, he mouthed, "I'll tell you later…"

"So which way are we going, then?" asked Jack. "We can't just stay here forever! Eventually Mr. Overgrown Bat will be coming back to torture us some more, and we've got to get out of here!"

"We go…" the Doctor shook the screwdriver up and down several times, perhaps hoping that it would give him some more information, but it gave nothing away. "We'll go this way."

The trio set off though the dim corridors, the doctor occasionally sweeping the screwdriver back and forth on front of him, scanning for life forms. Taal was somewhat critical of his technique, and continued using her eyes and ears to look out for anyone. Jack walked along behind them, completely not paying attention to anything and munching on the banana that Taal had throw at him. Eventually, though, he spoke up.

"Doctor, are you sure we're going the right way? I admit that I wandered around for a bit in the corridors from the entrance to the dungeon trying to find you, but not for this long!" he said between bites of banana.

"Of course I'm sure!" The Doctor looked back at Jack. "Since when have I given you cause to doubt me?"

Jack took a last bite and threw the banana peel on the ground behind him. "Since you left me behind on Satellite 5-"

"Shhhhh!" said Taal, motioning for Jack to be quiet. "I just heard something. Someone's here." She reached into her coat pocket to pull out her replicator, which could be used to produce a more substantial weapon, but pulled out the wand instead. Since this was a wizarding school, she decided to hold onto it, instead of putting it away and pulling out her replicator. She slowly turned, keeping the wand out in front of her. The corridor was dark, and slowly getting darker.

"Doctor-" she said, waiting for him to turn to her, "-What's the spell for light. I want to try something."

The Doctor shrugged. "Lumos? I think that that's right."

Taal nodded, and held the wand a little tighter. "Lumos." She whispered. To her astonishment, the tip of the wand flared up with light and lit up the corridor. "Oh, brilliant!" she looked around. Something seemed wrong. "Jack?"

"Hmmm?" said Jack, who was currently trying to pinch his gun from her side pocket.

She slapped his hand away, then continued. "You remember that banana I gave you?"

"Yeah…"

"And you…" she paused. "Ate it, right?"

"Yeah…"

"Then," said Taal, casting the light around the whole corridor, looking around. "Where's the peel?"

The three slowly turned around to look at where Jack had thrown the peel. The floor was now completely bare. Slowly, the peel came back into view, as if someone had put something over it and now was pulling it away.

"Someone's here!" cried Jack, instinctually reaching into his coat for his gun. No gun was there, of course, so he came out empty handed. Taal sighed and, reaching into her coat, threw him his gun. He gave her a mock salute, and trained the gun on the supposedly empty hallway.

"Who's there?" said the Doctor, sweeping his screwdriver back and forth across the hallway. "I know you're there. And since you're using an invisibility cloak, I think that I know who it is." His supposedly random sweeping of his screwdriver slowed, until he pointed it at one specific place. "Gotcha." He made a mad grab for a seemingly empty area of space. He lurched forward a bit, but came away with a cloak made out of a silky material in his hand and three fourth years landing sprawled on the ground in front of him.

"An invisibility cloak!" cried Jack. "That's _cheating!_"

Harry scrambled to his feet and almost made a grab for the cloak, but backed off when Jack pointed his gun at him. Ron and Hermione stayed huddled together about ten feet away from the Doctor, Taal and Jack, Ron muttering almost incoherently the whole time. Taal could just make out what he was saying- "Th-th-th-that's Barty Crouch Junior! He's a DEATH EATER! We were mad to come down here, mad I tell you! Harry must be suffering from oxygen deprivation or something; we've got to get out of here before he curses someone!"

The Doctor almost sighed, and threw the cloak down on the ground, albeit away from Harry. He tucked his screwdriver into his suit jacket, still having not gotten his coat back, and clasped his hands behind his back, trying to look unthreatening. Taal and Jack, on the other hand, kept the wands and the gun trained on Harry, Hermione, and Ron.

"I'm not Barty Crouch, Ronald. And I'm certainly no Death Eater. Look." He rolled up his sleeve, showing that there was no Dark Mark there. "Look, all clean! Never any Mark, I'm NOT a Death Eater!"

"Don't listen to him, Harry!" called out Ron. "He could have disguised it or something!"

The Doctor and Hermione spoke at the same time. "Honestly, Ronald, don't you read?" the Doctor, of course was referring to the Harry Potter books, and Hermione was referring to something else, but the fact was still there.

The Doctor nodded to Hermione as she looked at him in astonishment, then continued. "A Death Eater's Dark Mark cannot be hidden by magical means. So unless this man is wearing a lot of makeup on his arm or something, he hasn't got a Mark."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Does he look like the type of person who would wear outlandish amounts of makeup… on his arm?"

"Shut up, Jack." Said the Doctor, shooting him a _look._ Jack shut up, but kept the gun out where Harry and the others could see it. Taal had started to lower her wand, but kept it out with the tip lit up. Despite her cat-like senses, she needed to know right away in case something was happening.

"You say that you're not a Death Eater." Harry hissed. The Doctor nodded, smiling slightly. "You say that you're not a threat." The Doctor nodded again. "Then why does your associate have a gun pointed strait at my head?"

The Doctor almost laughed. "Because… because… You're flipping HARRY POTTER! The Boy-Who-Lived! Voldemort's greatest enemy! You have a talent for getting yourself in and out of trouble, and, frankly, I'd rather not get involved in said trouble!"

Harry looked dumbfounded. "You said his name! You said Voldemort's name!"

The Doctor shrugged. "It's just a name. Names are just titles, and titles don't tell you anything. Don't fear the name, if you must fear something; fear the man- if you can call him a man- behind the name."

Harry raised his eyebrows in surprise. This was what he had been saying about Voldemort for the past four years, ever since he had found out that he was a wizard, and here was a Death Eater, or at least a Death Eater look-alike saying the same thing. Despite himself, he found that he could grow to like this enigmatic man, and maybe his cat-like companion as well. But the other man's gun-pointing wasn't doing him any favors.

"So. If you're not a Death Eater by the name of Barty Crouch Junior, then who are you?"

"I'm the Doctor." He said. "This is Taal, my companion. She's a catperson."

"And I'm Captain Jack Harkness." Said Jack, finally putting his gun away and holding out his hand in greeting.

"Jack…" Said the Doctor, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Don't start."

"I was only saying hello!" he said, retracting his hand and looking at the Doctor.

"For you, that's _starting."_ Snapped the Doctor.

"Hold on…" said Hermione, staring at the Doctor. "You're the Doctor! But that's… that's impossible! You don't exist! And besides, you don't look like him, anyway. Unless you've regenerated."

"Well, obviously, we do." Said Jack. "Doctor, we need to get out of here. The longer we sit and chat, the more likely it is that Snape or someone'll come down here. Especially Moody. If they think that you're Barty Crouch Junior, you definitely need to stay away from Moody."

"Yeah… Look, it's been lovely chatting with you, it really has." Said the Doctor. "But we really need to go. The TARDIS is out in the forest-"

"You really have a TARDIS, then!" exclaimed Hermione, beside herself with excitement.

"Hermione, what are you talking about?" cried Ron.

"The Doctor!" Ron obviously didn't get it. "From Doctor Who!"

"Doctor… what?" said the Doctor, obviously not having been paying much attention.

"Who." Said Hermione. "It's this great television show that hasn't been on the air for a long time now. But my dad was obsessed with it- we watched it all the time from videos he had."

The Doctor was looking worried now. "Look, why don't we finish this conversation later, in the TARDIS or something. You three put back on the cloak," he kicked it back to Harry, who picked it up. "And follow us. Just…" he paused. "By careful."

The Doctor, Taal, and Jack started to continue walking down the corridor when Hermione called out from behind them, "You are aware that you're going the wrong way, right?"

They turned around and started walking back the way that they came. All were two embarrassed to notice when a tall, grizzled figure stepped out from the shadows behind them and, watching them go, took a swig from a flask. It would have been to dark to see properly, but it was obvious that this figure had heard their every word.


	7. TARDIS Chat

Chapter 7 TARDIS Chat

The trio followed Jack, Taal and the Doctor through the dungeons and out into the main part of the school. They had several close calls, one with Mrs. Norris and one with Filch, but they managed to escape both time. Taal extinguished her wand after being told the proper spell by Hermione, and they crept out onto the side lawn of the castle. They snuck past the Weeping Willow, and nearly got caught by Hagrid and Fang as they returned from the Forbidden Forest.

Taal, Jack, and the Doctor managed to duck behind a tree at the edge of the forest, but Harry, Ron and Hermione weren't so lucky. Fang had caught their sent, and now he was sniffing around their feet.

"What're you doing, Fang?" said Hagrid. "There's nuthin' there, y' silly mutt." He grabbed Fang by the scruff of the neck and swept a meaty hand though the air. Harry, Ron and Hermione managed to duck at the last second, Hagrid's hand missing them by less than an inch. "See? Nuthin' here." He hauled Fang away toward his cottage, the dog whining and trying to scrabble back towards them. Hagrid muttered to himself as he walked away. "Silly dog. Barking at thin air, you're going soft, Fang. Nuthin' there at all."

Taal breathed a sigh of relief. While she doubted that Hagrid would have gotten Harry in trouble for being out of bounds, not if he told him that he was going to see him, but he wouldn't have put it past Ron to rat Taal, Jack and the Doctor out and get them in trouble. Once they were out of earshot of Hagrid and Fang, Taal softly called out to them. "Are you alright?"

Harry pulled the cloak off of his head, exposing Ron and Hermione's heads as well. "We're fine. Lucky that Fang didn't notice you guys."

"Lucky that Fang didn't notice me!" chuckled Taal. "I think that he would have had a field day chasing me, but it would have put something of a damper on our plans."

The others chuckled as well, and Harry pulled the hood of the cloak back on. They forged on though the forest, Taal wincing every few steps. While Harry, Ron and Hermione seemed to make a decent effort not to step on every other twig in the entire forest, the Doctor and Jack seemed rather bad at it. "Can't you two be a little quieter?" hissed Taal.

The Doctor shrugged and whispered a hurried apology, but Jack ignored her and seemed to step on even more twigs. Soon, Taal simply lost her temper.

"JACK!" she said as loud as she dared in the forest. "Just stop. Look down, and try not to break so may twigs. Do you want EVERYTHING that's hungry in the forest to come after us?"

"Calm down." Whispered Jack. "Sorry, I'll try. No need to yell."

Taal shot him an annoyed glance, but continued on. Soon, the TARDIS loomed in the gloom.

The Doctor sighed, and opened the door. It was still pitch black inside, but as he stepped further inside, the gloom lightened somewhat. Once he pulled the glowing crystal from his suit pocket, however, the interior brightened to its normal illumination. He walked over to the grill that he has helped Taal pull up, and replaced the crystal in its slot. The TARDIS began humming softly, and the Doctor knew all was back to normal.

Taal was already sitting on the pilot's chair, her long legs straight out in front of her, her feet on the console. Jack leaned on the railing near the door, and shut it behind harry, Ron, and Hermione as they entered the room. Ron and Harry seemed almost nonplussed at the fact that it really was bigger on the inside, but Hermione's mouth gaped open. "It really _is_ bigger on the inside- that's amazing!"

The Doctor chuckled slightly, but still seemed slightly worried that this young witch seemed to know almost as much about him as he knew about her universe. She seemed to know exactly who he was, and where he came from. She even knew what the TARDIS was, even though he'd never been in this universe before.

"So, Miss Granger, how do you come to know how much about us?" he said, leaning up against the console and folding his arms across his chest.

"I told you!" she said, still looking around in amazement. "I watch Doctor Who on TV. Though you don't look anything like the last Doctor. What regeneration are you on? Nine?"

The Doctor shook his head. "Ten. Funnily enough, I know all about you because you're in books… and in movies."

"We're in books?" exclaimed Harry. "Then… do you know how… our story ends?"

The Doctor regarded him sadly, his face serious. "Yes, Harry, I do know how it will end."

Harry regarded him hungrily. "Tell me! Do we win?"

The Doctor slowly shook his head. "I would have thought that from your dislike of Divination you would not want to know the future. Or at the very least, understand the danger of knowing the future. I can't tell you what will happen, Harry. You have a long road ahead of you. You'll lose a lot, but… it'll all turn out for the best."

"For you and the Death Eaters? Or for us?" accused Ron.

"I thought that we already established that I wasn't Barty Crouch!" exclaimed the Doctor, rolling his eyes in exasperation. "I'm not even human!"

Harry's head whipped around. "What do you mean, you're not human? Of course you're human, you look human!"

"Harry," said the Doctor. "Does this look like human technology? Does Taal look human? I may look human, but that's not true. You look Time Lord. We came first."

"Time Lord?" scoffed Ron. "That's a pit pretentious, don't you think?"

"It's what my race is called- Time Lords. Because we can travel in time, and change things. That's why we're not leaving right now. Because the TARDIS is part of events now, and we're involved. We need to stay here and make sure that events happen as they should." The Doctor regarded Harry. "Which is why we're going to stay here in the TARDIS until the end of the school year and you are going to go back to the castle, get a good night's sleep, and start working towards the third task."

Harry nodded, still not completely convinced. "Oh, and Harry?" he turned. "Trust Moody. Don't tell him about us, because Dark Mark or not, he'll come after me."

_Ok, that's a bald faced lie, but I can't let him know who Moody really is, or Voldemort won't come back like he has too._ The Doctor thought, then continued.

"But trust him. He'll help you. He already has."

Harry put his cloak on, and soon Hermione and Ron vanished along with him. The TARDIS door opened, then shut again, apparently under its own power. Taal hopped down from the seat, and walked up to the Doctor.

"Will he be ok?" she asked, her voice soft.

"I hope so." Said the Doctor. "This little trip has become a lot more dangerous. We're in even more danger now, especially since Snape is bound to tell Mood about us, and we're interfering in very set events. This is risky, Taal."

"Riskier than normal."

**You're welcome for the new update. I'm still working on other stories (A Doctor Who/Artemis Fowl crossover, and I will be working on a Doctor Who/Hunger Games crossover) but updates will be coming regularly. I'll have at least on update per story per week, so don't worry too much.**

**As always, READ AND REVIEW, PLEASE!**


	8. A Plan?

Chapter 8 A Plan?

"I hope so." Said the Doctor. "This little trip has become a lot more dangerous. We're in even more danger now, especially since Snape is bound to tell Mood about us, and we're interfering in very set events. This is risky, Taal."

"Riskier than normal."

"And who decides what 'normal' is?" asked Jack, joining them in the center of the console room.

"Normal is the consequences of failure is probably our deaths, and possibly the deaths of those involved in whatever we're doing." The Doctor looked at Jack. "The worst outcome of this is having our deaths and the death of The-Boy-Who-Lived, dooming this universe to endless war."

"But wasn't there a war anyway?" Jack said, "So if we prevent Harry from going to the graveyard, then wouldn't we stop Voldemort from rising?"

"It's not that simple." Taal said, looking at Jack. "If we interfere, then Voldemort will still come back eventually. He'll just use someone else's blood, and that means that Harry's blood won't be in his veins. That means that in the seventh book, when Harry has to die by Voldemort's hand in order to kill that Horcrux, Harry won't come back to life and be able to kill Voldemort."

"And that means that Voldemort might not die after all, and he would truly possess the elder wand." Said the Doctor.

"Which means," said Taal, "Wizard world goes boom! Because Voldy'd take over, and the large portion of the population'd never let that happen, so we're talking massive death, here. All because we tried to stop Harry and Cedric from going into the graveyard."

"So by saving one life, we' take millions more. Got it, forget I asked." Sighed Jack. "So, what are we going to do? We've got at least a month or two before the last task, and, as nice as the TARDIS is, we're going to need food and stuff. Our best bet would be to go to Hogsmeade and buy supplies."

"But who would go?" Taal sighed. "I don't think that we can risk that without too many questions being asked."

"What do you mean?" asked Jack, somewhat confused now. "Why wouldn't any of us be able to go?"

"Jack, none of us could really go out in the open." Taal was somewhat annoyed that she needed to explain this, but she continued. "I can't because, although I look fairly young and have a British accent, I'm a catperson. The Doctor can't go out because he'd immediately get mobbed for being Barty Crouch Junior. And you can't go out, because you're an American. You've got the wrong accent, and you flirt with anything that can move. You'd be the most trouble of all of us."

"So how are we going to get supplies?" asked Jack. "We have enough for now, but what about later?"

"Dobby!" exclaimed the Doctor. "If we can get Harry to get him to give us what we need, we don't need to worry about anything!"

"And how are we going to communicate with Harry?" said Taal. "We just sent him on his merry way."

"The DA coins?" said Jack. "Taal has a wand, so she could make another coin and use the sonic to tap into the magical wavelength."

Taal removed her feet from the console and placed them on the floor, barely touching. She then leaned over and put her elbows on her knees, and her head in her hands. "He doesn't get the coins until the next book, remember? Our best bet is for the Doctor to lure Hedwig to the TARDIS, and get her to give him a message to meet us."

"And how do we do that?" scoffed Jack, before looking at the Doctor. The Doctor had somehow ended up with his long brown coat back on, which Taal knew for a fact was left in the castle (unless he had another one), and was pulling out random bits of stuff from the pockets. A small mountain of seemingly unconnected items, ranging from a bag of jelly babies to a cricket ball to a toothbrush (which Taal privately worried about- why would the Doctor need a toothbrush in his pocket?), piled up, until he finally pulled out a small metal tin.

"Gotcha!" he exclaimed, and threw the rest of the stuff in his pockets. He held up the tin, and explained. "Owl treats. If Hedwig doesn't come, we'll at least have another trained owl come for a treat. Then we tell it that the message is for Harry Potter, and off it goes, into the wild blue yonder! And if it's a bad owl, and it brings it to the wrong person, i.e. not Ron, Harry or Hermione, Taal charms it to tear itself asunder! Brilliant!"

"Don't get ahead of yourself." Taal warned. "Get an owl first, I'll write the note. Jack, you… you… you just go do something to stay out of our hair."

"Yes ma'am!" said Jack, snapping a mock salute and walking off down one of the many corridors in the TARDIS, probably to find a room to spend the night.

The Doctor went outside with his tin of… owl treats, and Taal pulled out her replicator. Soon she had a quill, ink, and some parchment, and she was on her way to her study to write out the note.

Taal sat in the study, trying to come up with the perfect words to phrase their need. She got the impression that Harry wasn't too fond of them, so she needed to phrase this carefully. Finally, she dipped her quill in the inkwell, and began to write.

She flipped the parchment open, first, and wrote "_Do Not Open This At the Table, Harry!" _on it. She then flipped it back to the normal writing side, and wrote,

_Harry,_

_This is Taal, writing to you from the TARDIS. I have a very important favor to ask of you. I know that you freed Dobby, and that he is willing to do just about anything for you. We are stuck in the TARDIS until the end of the school year, making sure that everything will happen as it should. However, we have next to no supplies as far as food is concerned, and no one of us can venture into Hogsmeade without fear of discovery. On that point, I am asking you, no, begging you, to ask Dobby to take us some food, preferably on a regular basis. I am aware that you have access to the kitchen, as you once got food for Padfoot, aka Sirius Black, from the house-elves there. All we're asking for you to do is ask one of them to bring us food. The only reason I say Dobby is because I believe that you can trust Dobby._

_Please send a reply to this as soon as you can, but don't use the owl that we have sent it with, or Hedwig, at all. We can't risk detection. Even though the TARDIS doors might be able to resist the assembled hoards of Genghis Khan, I doubt that it will be able to stand up to the teaching complement of Hogwarts for very long. Although, it might help if you could get McGonagall out here, she seems like a reasonable woman who would be willing to listen to us._

_Please help us, and I'll help you. I have a very extensive knowledge of what you'll face in your next task, and I can help you, if you're willing to help us. The TARDIS will move after this message is sent, but any owl should be able to find us. We'll be here._

_Sincerely,_

_Major Lynsing Taal, Captain Jack Harkness, and the Doctor_

As Taal folded the letter up and sealed it with a bit of hot wax, the Doctor came in with a magnificent snowy owl perched on his arm.

"Is that…" she trailed off, wondering if this really could be _the_ Hedwig from the books.

The Doctor nodded. "Sure is!"

He let Hedwig down onto the table, and Taal carefully tied the note to her leg. She then carefully charmed it based on the knowledge of the Harry Potter canon in the TARDIS databank to turn blank if anyone other than Harry, Ron, Hermione, or, she added after a moment's thought, Ginny.

Jack joined the Doctor and Taal at the entrance to the TARDIS. After a quick scan by the console, the three stepped outside. The doctor held out his arm, letting Hedwig soar off into the sky, ready to give Harry the letter the next day, or rather, later that day. Then they returned to the TARDIS. The TARDIS slowly faded from view as they moved deeper into the Forbidden Forest, more willing to brave the beast within than the supposedly civilized people within the castle.

**Alright, alright, I know I said that I would be taking a short break from this, to work on something else, and I am! I just had a flash of inspiration for this chapter. So, I'll just be writing it in bits and bursts. Ignore me if I say I won't be able to add to it for a while, a new update will probably be up within a few days. As always, reading and reviewing is most appreciated!**


	9. A Response and a Betrayal

Chapter 9 A Response and a Betrayal

Jack joined the Doctor and Taal at the entrance to the TARDIS. After a quick scan by the console, the three stepped outside. The doctor held out his arm, letting Hedwig soar off into the sky, ready to give Harry the letter the next day, or rather, later that day. Then they returned to the TARDIS. The TARDIS slowly faded from view as they moved deeper into the Forbidden Forest, more willing to brave the beast within than the supposedly civilized people within the castle.

As they reentered the TARDIS, Taal took one last look at the night sky lightening into dawn. The real Barty Crouch was out there, but there was also the entire world that she had read about so many times and wished was real. Hogwarts really existed. Hogsmeade was down the road, and there really was a Honeyduke's, and a Zonko's, there really was a Shrieking Shack, there really was a Sirius Black and a Harry Potter.

A chill went down her spine even though it was relatively warm outside. _And because those wondrous things exist, _she thought, _that means other things exist, too. Death Eaters, obviously. If they could mistake the Doctor for one, then they could say anyone was one. And this is only the fourth book. Voldemort isn't even back yet._

"Taal, you alright?" came a soft voice behind her. As much as she disliked Jack, his hand on her shoulder felt good right now, helped her focus on the real word, not the world of fears. Even so, she wasn't willing to let Jack know that. She knew his type, and any opening she showed towards him would be like in invitation. Even so, she didn't correct him on her name.

"Yes, Jack, I'm fine." She said softly, shrugging off his hand and returning to the interior of the TARDIS, the door closing behind her. She cast one last glance at the doors, then left the control room on her way to her quarters. Jack followed her.

"Excuse me," she said, stopping and putting her hands on her hips. "But aren't your quarters down the other hallway?"

"Yes, they are." He said, putting his hand on the wall and leaning over so that he was on eyelevel with Taal. "I just thought that you might appreciate an escort back to your quarters. You seemed a little distracted."

Taal glared at him. If looks could kill, Jack would be stone cold by now. To Taal's surprise, however, he seemed unfazed. _Obviously the Doctor wasn't exaggerating when he said that Jack'd flirt with anything that moved. I wish that he'd leave me alone, but he's so damn persistent!_ She thought._ I wish that he'd just give it a rest._

"I may have seemed distracted, but that was not an invitation." She slipped under his arm and continued down the hall to her quarters. Jack didn't follow her, and when she glanced back in the process of opening her door, she could see that his mouth was hanging ever so slightly open. _He probably wasn't used to someone rejecting him like that. _Thought Taal. _Well, if he wants to hang about me, he'd better get used to it._ She closed the door behind her, and relished the click of the lock. She waited until she heard Jack's footsteps leaving the corridor before she relaxed and pulled out her laptop from the drawer in her desk, deciding to do a bit of surfing on the goings-on of this time period. The TARDIS could get Wi-Fi from just about anywhere, and this was no different.

She was able to substantiate the fact that they were in Harry's fourth year by the muggle news stories. She saw a small piece on the death of the muggle at the beginning of the book- Frank, his name was, she thought. And then conspiracy theories on what exactly had happened during the dates she recognized as being the Quidditch World Cup.

She was so engrossed in her work, in fact, that she missed the tap on her door. Then the knock. Then the rap, the pound, the slam, and finally was snapped out of her daze when she heard the Doctor's screwdriver working on the lock. The door slammed open, and the Doctor rushed in, shaking her slightly by the shoulders. "Taal! Taal, are you alright, can you hear me?"

Taal closed her eyes for a moment, and shook herself out of her daze. "Doctor, Doctor, I'm fine. You didn't need to break down my door!"

"Taal ,you locked your door. You _never_ lock your door. That, coupled with Jack's expression when he came out of the corridor made me think something was wrong. So I left you alone, thinking that you'd come out eventually. _But you didn't!"_ The Doctor finally let go of Taal's shoulders and sat down on the chair next to her, turning it so he was essentially sitting on it backwards. "So I decided to give you a little more time. But you've been in here for hours, Taal, hours! So when I got the reply from Harry, charmed, I might add to only be opened by you, I had to go looking for you! What in the name of Gallifrey have you been doing?"

Taal just stared at the Doctor as he tried to catch his breath. Once he seemed to be calmed down a little, she said, "You done?"

The Doctor mutely nodded.

"Good. Now, as you wanted to know what I've been doing, I've been double checking that we were in fact where and more importantly, when, we thought we were." She turned her laptop screen to the Doctor, who immediately started tapping away. "The little bits of information in the… _muggle_… news world seems to indicate that we are indeed when we thought we were. But that means we have about a month until…" she trailed off, letting the Doctor finish the sentence.

"Until the graveyard." he finished, his face pale and slightly worried.

Taal bobbed her head in a nod. "Yes. Until the graveyard. But," she took in a deep breath to dispel her growing sense of panic, "Well, what's in the note?"

The Doctor threw a small parchment packet to her. "Here. Hopefully you'll be able to open it."

Taal carefully sliced though the seal with a claw and read the note, her face growing paler under her fur with every word.

_Taal,_

_This is Hermione writing. Harry read your letter, but he doesn't know how to respond (he also doesn't know how to charm it so only you can open it. Silly boy, afraid of being shown up). _

_Harry talked to Dobby as soon as he got the letter, and he'll be bringing some food by sometime tonight. Harry will be coming with him, hopefully you can make good on your promise to help him with the third task. But there's a small problem._

_I saw how you expressed interest in meeting with Professor McGonagall, and frankly, I thought that was a bad idea. I didn't say anything, honest! But Professor McGonagall saw your letter over my shoulder! She destroyed it and said that it was all a trap- that you were Death Eaters in disguise! I don't want to believe it, but I think that she agrees with Snape. I saw her do something to the owl that brought this letter- she let me send this reply, but she doesn't know what is on it._

_So you need to run! She's coming for you, and she has no scruples about killing someone that she thinks has killed in the past! _

_You have ten minutes from the time that you read this sentence._

_Hermione_

"Ten minutes!" cried Taal. "How can she know that I have ten minutes?" she stared at the letter, and gawked as the 'ten' became a 'nine,' and another sentence appeared under the signature- _hurry! You don't have much time!_

Taal looked at the Doctor. "I have to go."

"What? To confront McGonagall? You don't know any magic! You'll be killed!"

She looked at the Doctor, tears brimming in her eyes. She lightly kissed him on the cheek, then said, "If I'm not back by the time you wake up, leave. Run, and never come back. I'm so, so sorry."

She pulled out her wand and whispered, "Stupefy."

The doctor's eyes rolled back in his head, and he slumped in Taal's arms. She gently laid him on her bed,, then whispered again, "I'm so sorry." She slipped a small datacard into his hand, and slipped out of the room.

As she was leaving, Jack ran up to her. "What happened? Where's the Doctor?"

"He's still in my bedroom, sulking. You can go see him."

Jack nodded, and walked off. Taal sighed, and stunned him too, then left the TARDIS.

She ran through the woods, making as much noise as she could. Finally, she reached the clearing that she recognized as where Harry would meet the Thestrals then next year. Where he would eventually… die.

"Professor! Professor Minerva McGonagall! I was told that you wanted a word, here I am! Come and get me!" she stuffed her wand in her pocket, and held her hands up. "I'm unarmed, I just want to talk!"

The professor walked out of the woods, her wand leveled at Taal. "You don't want to talk. Your kind never wants to walk, just destroy, and kill, and burn. You rip apart families and _laugh._ And you don't deserve Azkaban."

**Oooh! Cliffhanger! Let me know what you think- remember, more reviews means more chapters faster if I'm happy and inspired!**

**Feed the review-eater!**


	10. A Fight to End All Fights

Chapter 10 A Fight To End All Fights

The professor walked out of the woods, her wand leveled at Taal. "You don't want to talk. Your kind never wants to walk, just destroy, and kill, and burn. You rip apart families and _laugh._ And you don't deserve Azkaban."

"But we're not Death Eaters!" cried Taal. "I'm not even human, you can see that!"

"A result of a polyjuice potion gone wrong." McGonagall said though gritted teeth.

"No!" said Taal, throwing up her hands. "I'm a cat person! I was born almost five billion years in the future! I lived on New Earth all my life until the Doctor saved my life! My fighter was crashing, and he saved me. Do you really think that a Death Eater would have saved me?"

"If it served his purpose, yes." said McGonagall, but her wand seemed to waver a little bit. Hope flared in Taal's eyes. Maybe she could talk her out of this. Then iron hard resolve flared in McGonagall's eyes, and the wand seemed even steadier. Taal backed away slowly, instantly terrified.

"I'm not going to harm you! I'm not dangerous, look at me!" she spread her hands wide. "I've never even done magic before, I know nothing about it except for what I've-" she broke off before she could say 'what I've read.'

McGonagall stared at her. "Except for what you've… what, exactly?"

"Heard…" said Taal, lamely. "The spell's I've used are only the spell I've heard someone do. For example…" She flourished her wand a bit more than necessary, causing McGonagall to point the wand even more directly at her, "Lumos!"

Her wand tip lit up weakly, casting flickering shadows over her face. "See? Not exactly a dangerous spell, that one." She extinguished her wand tip with a whispered "nox," and stowed the wand away in her jacket.

"You will come with me." said McGonagall, motioning with her wand in the direction of the castle.

"Hmmmmm…" said Taal, sighing. "I was afraid that we'd hit this little snag."

"Snag? I see no snag! You are the companion of a convicted Death Eater, you will submit to at _least_ questioning by the Ministry, and very likely, a sentence in Azkaban!" McGonagall was shaking slightly now with anger, her wand pointed directly at Taal's chest.

"There's the snag. You see, you seem to be laboring under the delusion that I'll… what's the phrase… come quietly? You see, I'm here to help, to make sure that everything happens that should, that _must_. And I have no intentions of wasting my time with you, now that it appears that there's no chance of having you as an ally." She sighed, regarding McGonagall almost coldly.

"I've heard such good things about you, Minerva. A dedicated teacher, member of the, well, at the moment, ex-member, 'cause there's no point to it at the moment, ex-member of the Order of the Phoenix, second in command of Hogwarts, and, of course, head of Gryffindor House and close friend of Mister Potter himself! I would have thought that someone like you would see a Death Eater when she saw one. And I _know_ you don't see one in me."

Taal turned, deliberately leaving her back un-guarded. She reached into her jacket for her wand to defend herself, and wasn't surprised when, just as she cleared the trees at the edge of the clearing, there was a shout from behind her.

"Stupefy!" a jet of red light flew past Taal. She managed to duck at the last moment, and the spell hit a tree behind her, causing some of the dry bark to burst into flames that quickly sputtered out.

"Oh, yeah, never mind that I haven't made a single hostile move against you, go ahead and stun me!" she poked her head out from the tree she had hid behind, and quickly pulled it back as another jet of red light whizzed past her face.

"No witty comeback, then? Pity. I expected more of you!" she jumped out from behind the tree, holding out her wand, she racked her brain for the least damaging spell, but didn't have the chance to use any offensive spells.

"Stupefy!" McGonagall cried again. Without thinking, Taal cast the first spell that came to mind, slashing her wand.

"Protego!" the spell dissipated in a large invisible shield that had appeared. Her face split in a massive grin. "Hey, I didn't think that that would work!" her grin vanished in an instant when McGonagall behind attacking her wordlessly, yelling at her instead.

"How do you know about the Order?" she shouted, casting an odd orange-y looking jet of light at Taal, who managed to deflect it at the last moment.

"Oh, come on! You say 'how do you know about it' instead of denying it? Sheesh, you must subconsciously believe that I'm not a Death Eater then. Let's see, who else was in the Order- this should convince you that I'm on your side!"

"Not likely." Growled the professor. "Petrificus Totalus!"

"Longbottom!" cried Taal, furiously trying to keep her focus long enough to ward off the professor's last attacks. "Dumbledore, yourself. Edgar Bones, the Potters!"

"You could have just heard those names. You're just guessing. STUPEFY!"

"Hestia Jones! Remus Lupin! Tonks! Vance! Shacklebolt, Podmore, Fletcher, Dodge, Fenwick, McKinnon! I can name them all, if you want!" She braced herself for another attack, but none came.

"How can you possibly know that? Know so much about us, about me?" McGonagall said, she wand lowering slightly.

"I just do, I'm really sorry, but I can't explain." Taal said, lowering her head slightly.

"Tell me." McGonagall said, her wand starting to rise again.

"Alright, alright!" cried Taal. Her mind raced as she tried to think of a lie that was close enough to the truth that it would work, and sound true. "I'm from the future!" she blurted. He eyes immediately went wide and she clasped her hands over her mouth. That was true. It was so, true, and it would work.

"The… future?" said McGonagall. She wasn't buying it, Taal could tell. "How far?"

"About… five… billion years?" she said, her tone sounding almost apologetic.

"Not likely." said McGonagall. "What happens at the end of this year then?"

"Umm…" Taal deliberated how to answer. If she answered honestly, then all that the Doctor feared would come to pass. If she lied, bad things would happen to her, but she assumed that that would happen. That was why she had given the Doctor the chip, so he'd know what she had done. If she didn't answer, other bad things would happen, but they weren't as set in stone.

"I can't tell you, I really can't. Because if I told you, you would try to prevent them. And these events _must_ happen, there's no way around them. If you try to prevent them, Harry Potter will die within the next three years in order to kill Voldemort-" she broke off at McGonagall's wide eyed stare that a Death Eater would dare to say his name, "-yes, I say his name. As the Doctor said, names are just titles. Never fear a title. If you allow events to come to pass as they must, Harry will live, and Voldemort will die when the time is right. In three years."

"You will tell us. EXPELLIARMUS!" Taal was caught off guard by the spell, and the wand that Dumbledore had given her flew off into the forest. She felt it suddenly return into her pocket, but she didn't pull it out. Instead, she ran full pelt into the forest, dodging spells left and right. But she knew it was only a matter of time.

"Stupefy!" came another yell from behind her. The red jet of light hit her square in the back, and she collapsed onto the ground, unconscious. The last thing she saw was a jet of red sparks in the sky, and McGonagall's footsteps behind her. "You'll come quite quietly now."

**Another cliffhanger! Sorry for the shortness of this chapter, but the next chapter is from the Doctor's POV and I wanted to split them up. I'd like to take this time to please ask more people to review this story, and to give a special thank you to The10thDoctorRocks, deeforever, LordDalakMort, NoodleGurl27, KyokoHonda49, and darkikill for reviewing! **


	11. Hologram

**Note: as you can see in my writing, most of this is taking place from a 3rd person limited from Taal's POV. This chapter (and possibly the next few chapters) will be taking place from 3rd person limited from the Doctor's POV. You'll find out what's happened to Taal soon enough, but you'll have to wait.**

Chapter 11 Hologram

The Doctor groggily came to. For a moment, he didn't know where he was. Then the events of the last day came rushing back to him.

"Taal!" he cried, sitting bolt upright. This was her bedroom, the computer still sitting humming on the desk. He slowly walked over to it, sitting down heavily on Taal's favorite swivel chair, and aimlessly ran his fingers over the keys on the laptop. He didn't expect anything to happen; after all, Taal always shut off and encrypted her laptop after every use, but the screen turned on and revealed an image of Taal, sitting almost exactly where the Doctor was now.

There was a thunking sound as she tapped the screen. "Is this thing on?" came her voice. She peered at the camera. "Doctor, I know you're there, listening. I figure that right now you're probably a little down in the dumps, because I've left the TARDIS for one reason or another, but you need to know why. This message is playing because in your hands you have a datachip recognized by this computer."

The Doctor looked up, and found himself clutching a small chip so hard that it had left little indents in his hand. "Yes." He said softly. "Is this a failsafe or something?"

Taal smiled on camera. "I gave you a moment there to look at the chip, now let's get to business. On that chip is a hologram from me explaining in more detail why I've left you behind on the TARDIS. This is very important, because one way or another, you really shouldn't go looking for me."

"This message is a failsafe so that you'd know what to do with the chip."

"Oh, so it is a failsafe, then." said the Doctor. "What am I supposed to do with it?"

"Right about now, you're probably wondering what to do with the chip. Well," said Taal, "on the console, near the panel that opens into the Heart of the TARDIS, is a small card slot. About a week after you took me on here, after you taught me how to fly this thing, you were busy in your study and you let me fly it on my own."

"I remember that." Whispered the Doctor. "I found the TARDIS spinning out of control and you unconscious on the floor!"

"Well, here's what happened. You had just finished telling me about the dangers of traveling with you in the TARDIS. And I began working on a failsafe, a message that would get to you in the event that I was killed or captured and in a situation too dangerous for you to come rescue me. Somehow, that panel opened up a little, and the TARDIS read my mind, that slot appeared, and I got knocked out somehow. So all you have to do is put that card in that slot, and I'll say my goodbyes."

Taal pressed her middle and index fingers to her lips. "I'm so sorry, Doctor, if this is the message you see. If I had my way, I would have left the TARDIS under my own power, not have gotten taken away from it. I never wanted you to see this, and I'm sorry. I'm really, very sorry."

The screen faded to black, and showed a single option. _Play again?_

"No." said the Doctor, closing the lid of the laptop. The screen went dark for what was probably the last time.

.oOo.

As the Doctor strode out of the bedroom towards the console room, he was stopped by Jack. "Doctor! Where's Taal? I was going to find you, and then I must have passed out or something."

"She's gone." The Doctor said in a hoarse whisper, grasping the datachip even tighter.

"What?" said Jack, looking at the Doctor's stricken face. "What do you mean, she's gone?"

The Doctor wordlessly held up the datachip. "She left a message for me on her laptop. She left, trying to save our lives." He sniffed slightly and rubbed his nose. "I think that I rubbed off a little too much on her."

Jack walked up to the Doctor. "But isn't that a good thing? She obviously cares about you, Doctor. Honor her final request. Use the chip."

The Doctor nodded, and walked as if he were sleepwalking over to the console. He plugged the chip into the console, and a full sized hologram of Taal appeared in the exact space that his hologram had spoken to Rose before she became Bad Wolf.

"If you are listening to this, Doctor, this means that I have given you datachip one-seven-three. This chip was designed to allow me to give you one last message before you make your choice. I have been either captured or have left the TARDIS against your will in order to save your, and whoever else is in the TARDIS at the time's lives. My message is this: run. Please, get out of here."

"Doctor, the only reason that I would have left the TARDIS just to very likely get myself into a situation where the best outcome is buying you some time at the cost of my life is to save yours. Please, don't make my decision worthless. Leave where ever you are as quickly as you possibly can."

Taal paused, her head sweeping back and forth until it seemed like she was staring right at the Doctor. "But you're probably wondering right now what I meant by listening to this message before you make your choice. Well, here's the choice. If you remove this chip at any time before this message has concluded, you'll be able to try and come and get me. But if you fail to save me, you'll never be able to hear my final words."

"Then what's the other choice?" said the Doctor, his hand resting lightly on the chip.

"The other choice is to leave the chip in the slot until the end. If you choose this, and I really hope you do, the TARDIS controls will lock you out and return the TARDIS to one of the safest spots available. It will bring it to the Cardiff rift, where you can meet up with your little buddies at Torchwood- don't think that I don't know who they are, you talk in your sleep when you've been stunned. The TARDIS will lock you out of this specific place and will not allow you to return within a five-year radius into the future."

"You need to make your choice, Doctor. You have one minute before my final words."

Jack looked at the Doctor. "What are you going to do?" he asked. "Honor her final request or be so very _you_ and go save her."

"What's that quote again? 'To thine own self be true?'" He smiled, and looked back at the hologram.

"Time's up. Doctor, I'd like you to know that-" then she fizzled out.

"I'm going to save her. If they think that we're Death Eaters…" he looked at Jack.

Jack pulled his gun out of his pocket, and rolled up his sleeve to reveal his Vortex Manipulator. "Let's give 'em hell." He said grimly.

The Doctor looked at Jack, and placed his hand on the Manipulator. "For Taal."

"For Taal."

There was a flash of light as the Time Vortex ripped a hole in space around them, and they vanished.

**Dramatic, huh? I always wanted to do something like this, have the roles of Rose and the Doctor in Doomsday and The Parting of the Ways reversed. So, what should happen next? I'm on the fence about killing off Taal (Jack will definitely die once or twice, don't worry about that), and your opinions will change what happens! Should Taal live or die?**

**And once again, thanks to all who reviewed (The10thDoctorRocks, deeforever, LordDalakMort, NoodleGurl27, KyokoHonda49, darkikill, KyokoHonda49 again, and 10Whovian). Please let me know what you think and remember, Taal's fate is in your hands!**


	12. I'm Coming for You

**Many apologies! This chapter took WAY longer than it should have to get out, and I wasn't able to work on it over vacation. With the school year starting on Monday, I will be aiming for a chapter per week. And for those of you following A Police box in the Plaza, then next chapter should be coming out some time soon.**

Chapter 12 I'm Coming for You

The Doctor looked at Jack, and placed his hand on the Manipulator. "For Taal."

"For Taal."

There was a flash of light as the Time Vortex ripped a hole in space around them, and they vanished.

.oOo.

They reappeared, sprawled, in the same dungeon that they had been held in earlier. "Well…" said the Doctor. "Looks like she's not in here, then."

Jack winced getting up. "That was rougher than normal. Why?"

The Doctor quickly scanned his Vortex Manipulator, sighing. "The magic in the air here is eating away at the power reserves in that thing. We have enough for two, maybe three more hops before that thing needs to be far, far away from here and allowed to recharge."

"So, we're stuck here with next to no higher technology except for my gun and your…" he looked at the Doctor's screwdriver with something bordering on distaste. "screwdriver…"

"Oi! Don't diss the sonic!" cried the Doctor, brandishing it in Jack's face. "or I might just disable that gun of yours!"

"You wouldn't dare!" laughed Jack. They both knew that the threat was a hollow one, intended to break up the tense mod that had fallen over the two. The Doctor's eyes were hidden in the gloom, but Jack knew him well enough to guess what he might be going through right now.

Sacrificing himself to save others was a job belonging to either the Doctor, who could regenerate if he had to, or Jack, who could never die. Not to an ex-Major fighter pilot who was a mortal. Who could die. And Jack could tell that, while the Doctor was refusing to acknowledge that possibility, it was still there in the back of his mind.

"So, what's the plan?" asked Jack as the Doctor sonicked the door to the dungeon and the two of them stepped out.

"Haven't got one." said the Doctor. "You know me; I'll make it up as we go along. That's what I always do, it always ends up ok." His voice dropped as he muttered, "usually…"

"Doctor, what happened to Rose and Martha won't happen to Taal. You'll find her; you'll get her out of here. And I doubt that she would ever leave you voluntarily. She hasn't got any family to threaten-"

"But she's got _me._" hissed the Doctor. "She knows that I'm an alien like her, but she doesn't know that I can regenerate. "and she is still a pilot at heart. An egotistical flyboy… with a heart of pure gold. She'd never just sit by if I was in danger. She'd have to go out and do something _stupid_ like this, and get herself killed! That's _my_ job!"

"Doctor, in case you haven't noticed, Taal cares about you." Jack said, looking at the Doctor. "Not to the point of, say, Rose, but cares enough to do something like this. She obviously rates your life above her own. That, coupled with her training as a pilot makes her want to protect those that she can."

"But why me? Why does she feel the need to protect me?" said the Doctor. "I saved her life, she should see that I don't need protecting."

Jack stared at the Doctor. "There's your answer." He said. "She probably feels obliged to save your life because you saved hers. It makes sense if you think about it." He shrugged and edged out into the corridor. "But we don't have time to talk about this now, Doctor. Let's go find Taal."

The Doctor followed, his screwdriver held out in front of him, scanning for Taal. Jack followed, his gun sweeping back and forth, covering their backs and their advance. The Doctor ignored his casual use of a gun, focusing his entire mind on the screwdriver.

He shook his head in annoyance. The screwdriver seemed to be picking up traces of Taal from all over, as if she had been paraded up and down this corridor just to… just to throw him off by hiding her in herself.

"Jack, can you pick up anything from Taal? Your gun works as a scanner too, right?"

Jack nodded, then tossed the gun to the Doctor, who looked at it with distaste for a moment before throwing it back to Jack with a disapproving look. Jack shrugged and smiled and quickly pressed a butting on the back of the handgrip. "From what I can tell, Doctor," he started, "she's been lead up and down this hall numerous times to hide her trace. Then, she was lead out of that hallway there-" he broke off to gesture towards a wooden door at the end of the hallway, "-where the trace just vanishes. I suppose she could have been, I dunno, teleported, or something, but that would have left a trace."

The Doctor shook his head, preoccupied with getting the door open. "Dammit!" he cried. "I forgot, the sonic _doesn't do wood!_" he smacked the tiny silver device against his palm several times before standing up and looking at Jack, who had a somewhat smug look on his face. "Do the shoot-y gun thing…"

Jack took aim with a little more flourish than was strictly necessary and shot the door. The handle vanished in a square of blue light, and he shoved it aside with his shoulder. The Doctor followed him in, absolutely quiet. Jack spared him a quick glance before returning the handle and lock back to its place and noticed that the Doctor's face was the perfectly composed mask that he would use to hide his feelings. Jack gulped slightly, something about this Doctor shook him.

As Jack scanned the small room, the Doctor walked up to the only means of escape from the room- a window. He pressed his hand flat against it, and sighed. He spun to Jack. "Brooms!"

"What?" said Jack, completely caught by surprise. The Doctor seemed to be sinking into some sort of depression, why was he all bouncy again? Then it hit him- now he had a chance to save Taal.

"Brooms!" cried the Doctor again. "They flew away on _brooms! That's why they didn't leave a trace; the magic would interfere with your scanner!"_

Jack looked at him skeptically. "Really, Doctor? Are you sure that you're not just grasping at straws now?"

The Doctor shot him a look. "How else could they have taken her? Apparition doesn't work on Hogwarts grounds. And if they took her away by brooms…" his voice dropped as he looked out the window again. "They took her to the ministry."

Jack looked nervous for the first time. "And we need to break her out of there?" he leaned against the wall. "And how the hell are we going to do that? They're wizards! They could kill either of us with a single word, and you want to fight them?"

The Doctor once again gave him a withering look. "Good thing that you can get back up again then. But I wasn't thinking of anything quite so elaborate. We take the TARDIS into her cell, sonic any cuffs, get her into the TARDIS again, and get the hell out of there."

Jack sighed. "You know that that's never going to work, Doctor. We'd be better off taking my manipulator."

"Good point, but we can't take the manipulator. That thing's almost out of charge. What if we took brooms too?" The Doctor looked around, finally spotting two sleek looking broomsticks lying against the far wall. "We can take those."

"You expect me to ride one of those?" asked Jack incredulously.

The Doctor looked at a point just over Jack's shoulder, at the still open door. "You might not have a choice, Jack. They're coming. Seal the door, now. I'll get the window open."

Jack looked at the door, then shoved it closed. With another shrug, he walked over to the Doctor. "That won't hold them for long, Doctor. We need to get out of here, now."

The Doctor ignored him for a moment, turning only when the window swung open. "They're coming. Hurry!"

Jack nervously hopped onto a broom, the Doctor casually sitting on the other. They swooped out of the window just as McGonagall burst in behind them. She ran to the door, yelling something, but the wind snatched her words away. And the Doctor and Jack wouldn't have heard her anyway- they were on their way to save Taal.


	13. Taal's Trial

**I fear great apologies are in order. This chapter took me WAY too long to write, and I realize it's been over a month since I updated this story. I haven't forgotten, I've just been busy with school and such. Chapters will now be coming much more frequently, and I thank all of you who still read and review my stories despite the ridiculous time it has taken me to finish this chapter up.**

_**Blah **_**is two characters talking telepathically.**

Chapter 13 Taal's Trial

Taal woke up with a start. She kept her eyes closed, forcing her muscles to stay loose and relaxed. She was dealing with Witches and Wizards here, and while she seemed to have all of her tech on her (apparently they weren't bright enough to remove her coat- maybe they had never heard of pockets being Bigger on the Inside), she didn't want to antagonize them and get herself into a worse situation that she would not be able to get herself out of. She was banking on the Doctor coming to save her, but she had a backup plan. But she needed to test a hypothesis before she could implement it.

So she observed her surroundings. She was in a cold, high backed chair made of what felt like stone, but it could have been just hard, cold wood. There was a slight unnatural chill in the air- Taal guessed that dementors were about, but she wasn't feeling any of the other effects of a dementor. She wondered offhandedly whether she'd be able to see them, considering she was a non-human and not even really a witch. She was in a large room, judging by the echoes, probably made out of stone as well. There was low, nervous whisper coming through the room from in front of her. She realized where she was, and her mind instantly painted a picture of the room.

She thought back to watching The Order of the Phoenix with the Doctor earlier that year. She would be in the room near the Department of Mysteries, the room where Harry was tried- would be tried- for doing underage magic the next year. She took some comfort for the fact that she had not been put in the cage-like trial seat Harry saw in the Pensive. Instead, she was simply sitting 'unconscious' in a chair, unbound, about to be tried for being the associate of a Death Eater. Which was, admittedly, not really that much better of a scenario to be in.

"I grow tired of this," a voice high above and in front of her called. She recognized the voice as that of the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, "Wake her."

There was the sound of footsteps, and a wand was pressed to the base of her throat. "Ennervate." She was thrown to consciousness. A witch with short reddish hair and the black robes of the Wizengamot smiled almost apologetically before returning to her seat through Apparition. Taal glanced about. She had been right about there being dementors in the courtroom. They seemed to be completely ignoring her, oddly enough. Her emotions were probably far enough from human so as for them not to have any interest in her, a prospect which she liked as far as her chances of escaping increased greatly.

She looked up at Fudge, waiting for him to address her. Finally, he did. "You have been identified as Major Lynsing Maria Taal. We have no record of you as a witch in our database. You have been charged with knowingly and willfully aiding in the escape of the known Death Eater Bartemius Crouch Junior from Hogwarts custody, as well as traveling with him and, through guilt by association, of being a Death Eater yourself. How do you plead to these terms?"

Taal raised her eyebrows and leaned back on her chair, hands behind her head and legs crossed out in front of her. She looked completely relaxed. "I'm afraid that I must plead not guilty to those charges. All of them are false, because I'm afraid that I've never even met Mr. Barty Crouch Junior."

A nervous mutter broke out among the Wizengamot at Taal's bold statement. Fudge peered down at her, and she just stared back up at him, the innocent expression she had perfected after accidently caused the Doctor to lose control of the TARDIS and land in the middle of the ocean. Neither of them had been dry for a week afterward. Fudge cleared his throat. "So am I to accept your plea of not guilty?"

"Oh, it's not a plea, it's a fact." Taal responded quickly. "Use Veritaserum if you don't believe me. I have never met Barty Crouch Junior. I travel with the Doctor. I aided in his escape and in that of a Mister Jack Harkness from unlawful custody in the Hogwarts dungeons. And no one is less of a Death Eater than the Doctor. I doubt he can even do magic, and if he could, he would never even look at any spell that would cause harm."

"An eloquent speech, Miss Taal," said Fudge. "But I'm afraid that this man you call 'the Doctor' is not the man you think he is."

Taal leaned forward. "I think the fact is that the Doctor isn't the man that _you _think he is, Minister. He's an alien, as alien as I am. Have a medwizard or someone check me out; my biology is very different than someone who had drunk a polyjuice potion. Also, Minister, is Barty Crouch Junior not dead? As far as I know, he died in Azkaban." A lie of course, she knew exactly where Barty was- in Hogwarts under the name of Mad-Eye Moody. But Taal wasn't going to say that.

"That is immaterial." said Fudge. "The fact remains that this man matches every eyewitness account of Barty Crouch Junior, not to mention every single record that Ministry has. Deaths can be faked-"

Taal cut him off. "Then you say another has escaped from Azkaban."

Fudge went pale, but blustered on. "YES!" He shouted. "Sirius Black did it, why not Mr. Crouch?"

Taal had had enough of this now. She stood up, brushing off her coat. "Sirius Black is immaterial." She shouted back, enjoying the angry mutters breaking out among the Wizengamot for her daring to talk back.

"Immaterial? _Immaterial?"_ cried Fudge. "Sirius Black is no such thing! Black is a known supporter of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, a criminal responsible for the deaths of twelve muggles and a wizard! He is dangerous and still at large!"

"Sirius Black is innocent! He escaped under completely different circumstances, namely the fact that he in an animgus. And Dementors don't work on animagi, do they, Fudge?" She smiled more broadly, showing her teeth. "Well? Why don't you bring one on and see what happens?"

Fudge looked at her like she was an insect, and actually snarled slightly deep in his throat. His face paled slightly, but he leaned over and his voice got dangerously quiet. "Do you realize what you're asking me to do? You're asking me to bring a dementor _here, _into the Wizengamot _itself, _just to prove a point."

Taal looked back at him calmly. "You're called wizards for a reason. Protect yourself with your _sticks._" She scoffed. "Or is a dementor- a creature supposedly totally under your control- too scary for the big bad Minister of Magic?"

He looked at her with anger, but he knew he had no choice but to accept her challenge. He pulled out his wand. "Patronus charms at the ready!" he bellowed, and the doors swing open. A single creature in a long tattered black cloak glided in. Taal looked at it with easy, finding that, except for the unnatural chill in the air, she didn't have any of the other affects of a dementor happening to her. It stopped when it was about three feet from her, cocking its head in an almost inquisitive look, like it was confused. Taal was confused too, but she didn't want to betray her feelings. She had just wanted to have the dementors in the room so she could escape long enough to test out a theory.

_What are you? _A small, oddly cultured voice said in the back of Taal's head. She jumped, and the voice hurriedly added, _it's just me, the dementor. I'd rather they- _the head of the dementor turned almost imperceptibly towards the wizards- _don't know we're capable of this. The longer they think of us as dumb animals, the better._

Taal's eyes grew slightly wider, but she projected her thoughts towards the dementor as best that she could. _I'm what's called a catperson. I'm not human, never was and never will be. Probably why your dementor-y happiness sucking powers don't work on me. My brain works quite a bit differently than the humans that you're used to dealing with._

The dementor glided forward slightly, and even with the hooded cape over its face, Taal could tell that it was sizing her up. _Yes… I can see that I wouldn't be able to get anything from you, unfortunately. But why were you willing to take this risk? You could have been... not killed, but put out of commission, permanently. What could have possessed you to take such a risk?_

_The Doctor. _Taal answered promptly. _And I'm a risk taker. But I needed you in here so I could escape. _

_Escape? _Asked the dementor. Its tone of voice went suddenly hopeful. _If I help you escape, may I come with you?_

_Take you with me? _Taal resisted clamping her hand over her mouth. While that may seem stupid to a wizard, this dementor and her seemed to have an understanding. _Alright. This is how it will work. You distract them long enough for me to force the door, then keep them busy once I'm out for a half a minute._

_And then I follow you, and you get me out of here, _finished the dementor. _Deal?_

_Fine. Can I call you something other than 'the dementor?" maybe… Danny? Danny the dementor. I like that… _Taal thought, carefully concealing the fact that she'd have to leave him behind if her plan works.

A sound like dark chuckling filled her mind. _Danny t is, then. I don't need you to take me with you all the way, you know. I just need you to get me to a lift or a door to the outside. I can take care of myself from there._

_Alright Danny… _Taal reached inside her jacket and rested her hand lightly on her wand, the incantation she had heard so many times in the book in her head. She tensed to run, then shouted, "GO!"

Danny the Dementor leapt forward, gliding at top speed right towards the Wizengamot. Taal pulled her wand out of her jacket, and shot the spell at the door as she ran. When she realized that the lock was holding, she pulled out her blaster and simply shot the door out of her way. She leapt through the hole, and stuck her head back in. "DANNY! Now or never!"

The dementor made one last swoop at the assembled wizards, and then followed Taal through the hole, which she quickly sealed up. _I'll leave you now…_ said the dementor. _I can see that you'll be fine without me, and if we split out_, _they'll split up. _He started to glide off, but Taal grabbed the back of his robes, and found them surprisingly warm to the touch. _What?_

_I just need you to do one more thing for me. _Taal stopped as the dementor gave her a long look, then nodded. _I don't need you to go looking for him, but if you see a man named the Doctor, an alien like me but who looks human, let him know I'm here, and that I'm alive._

The dementor looked at her for a long minute, and Taal feared he would refuse. But instead, he nodded his hooded head and swept off. She ran off down the corridor in the opposite direction, running deeper into the Department of Mysteries.


	14. The Department of Mysteries

**Wow… It's been a while, hasn't it? Haven't updated this for… oh, four months? Apologies, really. I'd like to thank all of you who have stuck with this story; reviewing, story marking, favoriting, etc. This story has about two to three chapters left, I know what will happen to Taal (any theories in reviews would be fun to read…) and I do know that Jack should be dying about four times in the coming chapters. Stay tuned! ~Doc**

Chapter 14 The Department of Mysteries

Taal glanced anxiously over her shoulder at the door into the Wizengamot behind her. The shocked silence that she had heard when she first ran out had vanished, replaced by screams and an ever-rising clamor that even the thick wooden doors couldn't block. She found herself glancing over her shoulder more and more, and eventually had to force herself to look straight ahead and ignore the shouts from behind her. If they found her before she found out what she needed to know, she had no chance. A stunt like the one she just pulled would at least earn a one way trip to Azkaban. At the most… She shuddered thinking about it. A fate worse than death would await her at the hands of the dementors, and she didn't know whether they too would be willing to listen to her the way Danny did.

She smiled thinking slightly of Danny. If all went according to plan, the Doctor would be on his way now. Maybe he already was- he was bright, hopefully he'd have noticed that she wasn't at Hogwarts. And maybe the TARDIS would be on its way now! And maybe the moon was made out of cheese. He would never be so stupid as to take the TARDIS into what was a now almost enemy ground. And especially not with the TARDIS as low on power as it was.

Striding down one last hallway, Taal was pleased to see that her mental reconstruction of the hallways in the Department of Mysteries was accurate. This was the door that Harry had seen in his dreams, the Hall of Prophesy. She pressed one hand on the door, and it swung open easily. That should have been her first clue. She wandered down the rows of shelves, all with softly glowing orbs of glass on them. The grand room was unlit, but the balls cast a soft blue light on the room, throwing up odd shadows and giving her fur a sickly cast.

Finally she found herself stopping in front of a nearly empty shelf. Sitting there was a single orb, covered in a layer of dust nearly an inch thick. She blew off the dust, causing her to cough and wheeze and jerk herself back to reality. This wasn't where she had been heading, not at all. She took a quick step back, banging into the rickety shelf behind her and knocking an orb off. She spun around as a woman rose up in wispy smoke and began to speak:

_"A doctor will come_

_When the challenge is given and lies are told_

_Disguised as the one he unveils"_

Taal leaned over and picked up a shard of glass from the ground, which had a shred of yellow paper attached to it. _Another one of those prophesies mentioning a "doctor." Stick it in the back with the rest._

She dropped the slip, watching it as it floated down to the floor again. "_A _doctor? Or do these prophesies mean _the _Doctor. Is that why we're here?" she whispered, looking at the other globes on the shelf.

Taking a chance, she grabbed another; throwing it down on the ground and watching it shatter.

"_The fighter, the immortal, the Doctor,_

_Accused of things beyond their control_

_One death causes a storm_

_But death is a new beginning_

_And a gateway is not always what it appears"_

Taal grinned. "Brilliant," she whispered. She knew what the "gateway" was referring to, and, pulling out her wand, lit up the tip.

She had known all along what she was going to have to do to convince the Ministry she wasn't a threat. The only way to do that was to disappear, to die. And there was a way for her to die here- painless, quick, and if the books were to be believed, 'just like falling asleep.' With one fast movement of her wand, she sent a jet of red light to the shelf in front of her, containing the 'doctor' prophesies. Hundreds of ghostly figures rose out of the gloom, talking in chorus.

"There she is!" Taal recognized the voice of one Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge. She took off running.

.oOo.

Jack and the Doctor were flying as fast as they could though the now darkened sky. The sun had set, and it was becoming colder by the minute. Out of the deepening gloom came a hooded figure, that of a dementor.

"Get back!" Jack quickly pulled his broom up short in front of the Doctor's, nearly causing him to fall off his broom. Jack pulled out his blaster, training it on the dementor.

"What do you want?"

'_Only to let you know that your friend… Taal, was it? Is in danger.'_

Jack laughed. "No kidding! We're on her way to go save her."

'_Terrible danger. She thinks that her death will save the Doctor. I saw what she was planning to do.'_

The Doctor gently guided his broom under Jack to face the dementor directly. "What is she planning to do?"

'_I couldn't see exactly, she was doing a good job of keeping her mind hidden from me. Something about a gateway. In the Department of Mysteries. Does that mean anything to you? All I got out of it was death.'_

The Doctor swore under his breath. "Thank you for your time, we need to go."

'_Good luck…'_


End file.
